Strike/Lockout
Parents should know by Thursday morning whether teachers’ rotating strikes will continue next week. The B.C. Teachers’ Federation is required to give 48 hours notice and that doesn’t include the weekend. The BCTF announced May 20 that four days of rotating strikes across the province would proceed May 26 to 29. Vancouver teachers picketed May 26.
As of Monday afternoon, bargaining sessions remained scheduled for May 27 and 28.
The Vancouver School Board has consulted a lawyer about the government’s lockout of teachers, announced May 21. VSB chairperson Patti Bacchus says the board, as employer, needed clarification about docking the pay of teachers who, for example, might be leading a field trip over lunchtime, and which activities would be covered by WorkSafeBC.
“This is really an unprecedented kind of lockout in B.C. schools,” Bacchus said. “Even our senior people on staff with a lot of experience… are really left… trying to figure out what it all means.”
It had appeared the B.C. Public Schools Employers’ Association was going to pressure the BCTF by having the union pay employee benefit premiums, to the tune of $5 million to $10 million a month, according to Bacchus. Instead, BCPSEA said if teachers started rotating strikes, their work hours were to be curtailed and their pay docked 10 per cent.
The BCTF referred the salary reduction to the Labour Relations Board. Bacchus believes the LRB will consider the matter Thursday.
Bacchus said the VSB wouldn’t share the legal opinion it receives with the public because bargaining continues.Teachers want class size and composition and minimum levels of specialist teachers guarantees returned to their collective agreement, and wage and cost of living increases.
BCTF president Jim Iker says compared to teacher salaries across the country, B.C. teachers place in sixth to ninth place.
Gender policy
VSB trustees will hear from the public about its draft sexual orientation and gender identity policy for the third time this month, May 29.
“We’ve never had this kind of reaction to a policy revision before,” Bacchus said. “And from what I understand, even when the original policy came in and it was the first in the province, there was very little in terms of opposition.”
Bacchus says the opposition appears well-coordinated, with Cheryl Chang, chairperson of the Lord Byng secondary parent advisory council referenced in much of the discussion.
Chang wrote an open letter to trustees to voice her and other parents’ concerns about the policy and related process.
Byng’s PAC was to meet Tuesday evening, after the Courier’s press deadline, to discuss the position taken by the PAC’s executive. Only Byng parents were permitted to attend. Bacchus says she has received emails from people wanting to change the leadership of the PAC.
In the meantime, a B.C. Safer Schools Coalition has sprung up to support the new guidelines. The coalition includes the Trans Clinical Care Providers’ group, the Canadian Professional Association for Transgender Health and other groups and individuals that support the right of trans children to be safe in school.
The meeting starts at 5 p.m. at 1580 West Broadway.
